By Ryan Patota, Sports Reporter
As the winter sports season winds down and turns into spring, the Canisius men’s lacrosse team is nearly back in action.
Progress was made last season with a 5–10 overall record, including a 3–6 finish in MAAC play, missing the playoffs by two games. This was an improvement from the team’s record two years ago, which was 2–13 overall and 1–8 in the conference.
The biggest loss for the team is captain Jackson Webster, who graduated last spring before being drafted by the Las Vegas Desert Dogs in the third round of the NLL draft. However, the team has plenty of returning key players, including sophomore Mason Wolford and senior Patrick Mitchell, their top two goal scorers from last season. The team named four captains for this upcoming season: graduate student Erik Allen and seniors Reed Conrey, Tommy Kunz and Mitchell.
Mark Miyashita is going into his eighth season as head coach of the Canisius men’s lacrosse team. He spoke about captains showing veteran leadership and how they will have an impact on the team. “Their leadership and experience is important coming down to some of the close MAAC games that you're going to play. In a season like we were in last season, those one and two-goal games hopefully have us in the win column instead of [going] the other way,” said Coach Miyashita.
Another key player returning this season, who was recently named preseason All-MAAC, is junior faceoff specialist Micah Hanson. Hanson ranked third in the MAAC in faceoff wins with 184 last season. “[Hanson] gives us the confidence that any time he goes out for a faceoff, we are going to be getting the ball... He brings an energy and intensity that the rest of the team can feed off of,” explained Coach Miyashita. The men’s lacrosse team will begin their season in a non-conference matchup on the road in Geneva, NY this Saturday against Hobart starting at 12 p.m.
Photo courtesy of @GriffsMLax on Twitter/X
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